Activision CEO, co-chairman control 25 percent of votes

SAN FRANCISCO – Activision Blizzard Inc CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-chairman Brian Kelly control more than a quarter of voting interest in the company after completing their $8.2 billion deal to buy back most of its shares from Vivendi , the videogames publisher said on Monday.

Activision said on October 11 that it had closed a deal under which French media conglomerate Vivendi sold most of its majority stake in the company known for "Call Of Duty" and "Skylanders" games.

Activision had said it would buy back 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion in July.

Under the deal, Kotick and Kelly led an investor group, ASAC II LLP, which separately purchased about 172 million Activision shares from Vivendi for $2.34 billion. That group includes big-name backers like Fidelity Investments and Chinese web portal Tencent<0700.HK>, who do not have any voting rights.

The two executives, who personally invested $50 million each as part of the deal, together control ASAC's voting power. Kotick's voting power amounts to 25.5 percent of overall shares, while Kelly holds 25.1 percent, the company said in a Monday filing.